Paved or similar railway structure



May 6, 1930. 2 w. s. GoDwlN 1,757,565

` PVED 0R SIMILAR RAILWAY STRUCTURE Filed April 2'7, 1929 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented May y 6, i 1930 Unirse STATES WILLIAM s. GonwIN, oFsnnL'rIMoRngMAItYLAND d PAVEI) on SIMILAR RAILWAY STRUCTURE Appncat'mea 'apra 27,

The result of engineering experience and research on the subject oft paved railway structures leads to the conclusion which `is generally'accepted that an uniformly controlled resilient rail bearing gives the most efficient an-d economical service' with' the minimum of noise, rail corrosion and deterioration and hence the minimum requirement for repairs to paving, rolling stock and rails. Y

Because of the rigidity of the car wheels and the relative rigidity of the rolling stock, the highest obtainable degree of resiliency in the rail bearingsV is necessary, and any in-r crease in the effective tie bearing area gives a corresponding increase of the life of the structure and of the effectiveness in the way of ease of riding and absence of destructive vibration of thecars. Steam roads are in 2Q almost all instances so constructed as to giveV a resilient bearing for the rails and in the construction of street railways, the majority of which arepaved railway structures, the same eect is sought. This type of construction includes wooden ties spaced apart and laid on concrete, broken stone and in some instances on the natural soil, a more substantial subbase being,vhowever, considered necessary in the majority of instances. y I l These paved railways include a concrete paving base extending from la few inches above the tiesto a bottom surface which is lnear the bottom surface of the ties. the rails are supported directly on the portions of the paving base'between the ties, which obviously tends to break down the paving base due tothe shock and vibration and because there is usually a pocket or joint inthe concrete between the ties, the entire load of the cars on the rails is transmitted through the ties to the soil or other subbase. The ties usually rest on about thi'rtyfthree per cent. of the roadbe-d and on account of the shrinkage of the concrete between them they work loose, and due to the car impact they sink into the subbase to varying depths so that the track structure, i. e., the rails and ties, constitute a structure which is separate from the paving base and supported inde- 5'@ pendently of thepaving.

Unless 1929. seria1-N,o.l35s,522. n

' Asi' already suggested, the only connection between theVV concrete paving basel on the two sides of the rail is immediately under the'rail and between the ties and in laying the concrete at this point voids or pockets-usually occur under the rail, and if the concrete on the two sides of the rail is placed successively, there is also an open oint under or nearly under the rail in addition tothe pockets. So itis not practical to support the rails on the paving base. Y

The method commonly used to overcome this difficulty is to 'place four toi ten inches of broken stone, slag, sand for gravel between the ties and the subsoil, and not infrequentlyV a. cloncrete slab-is placed below'these materia s. K l i These methods are expensive andare not always effective. To accomplishv the desired result, the material beneath the tiesmust beV tamped and this can not bey accomplished vin a uniformly satisfactory manner. The

wider .the tie the more the uncertainty and diliculty involved, either in hand or mechanical tamping. There is always an element of uncertainty as to what percentage of the tie has a bearing' on the tamped material below it and further as to what percentage of the total tieareahas a bearing on this material after severalmonths or years of useinvolving more or less continuous carimpact. Y Y

` The usualrectangular wooden tie inv common use A.in street railway-A structures is 6 X 8'/ X 8 and spacedV 24C" on centers. The

subbase is 5.3 square feet or thirty-three per cent. of the total subbase area. As already pointed'out, it is not practicalto 'tamp uniformly under these ties, and, vbecause of the .car traffic, they'necessarily settle and on ac- Vcount ofthe uneven tamping they settle unevenly and in settling removea portion of kthe support beneath the pavementand cause breaking of thevpavement as it yields to the Vaction of the truck wheels and other heavy traici A l, v These-various difficulties are overcome and the necessity for subbases irrespective of the maXi-mum'bearing areaofthis tie on the i instead of all to the subgrade, and-this con-` natural subgrade is eliminated by the 'improved railway structure of thea invention.

Assuming for purposes of illustration the same amount of wood or any suitable resilient material in the tie, the same amount Y bearing area or any bearing area which may be provided, to the adjacentl concrete base crete base, i. e., so much of it as combines with each particulartie, has a bearing area on the subgrade of 13.4 square feet or three- '.fourths of the total baseas compared to a bearing area of 5.3 square feet-of the tie on the' subbase according to the present existing practice. `The above statement of 'thek improved practice assumes that theV tie is supported in the concrete base practically free of the subbase, otherwise one hundred per cent. instead of seventy-five per cent. of the area of the bedand ties would constitute the bearing area. .It is not essential, however,

Y .that the ties have no direct bearing on the sub-l base orlentirely supported by the wedging action-to be describe In accordance with the'preferred form of the invention, the railway structure includes Y a concretebed or base, which extends from a few inches above the ties to a bottom level which isnear the bottom of the ties. In order to produce the result-outlined and transmit the load on the tiesto the concrete base which fis. ordinarily the paving base instead of directlyfrom the bottom of the tie to the subbase, thus making a continuous integral railway structure comprising the ties, rails'and bed, the load onllthe rails 'being transmitted to the ties and from the ties to the conc-rete base and hence to the soil or subbase as aforesaid instead of directly from the ties to the subbase; the ties which are thus embedded inthe concreteibase are given a tapering or wedge shapedv outline in transversejcross section, i. e., the longitudinal side surfaces, are inclined down-wardly and inwardly and preferably the ties are jalso taperedinv a plane at right angles to the rails, being likewise of downwardly reduced cross section so that the ends are inclined inwardly and'downwardly toward the center of the tie.f In this. way

caused'to bear most eectively on thefadjacent surfaces of the concrete, the downward thrust of the carload being transmitted in a more nearly horizontal direction vordirections to the concrete bythe wedging action and preferably lateral compression stresses which are resisted most efciently, the harmful stresses or cantilever action, including tension elements, l being almost completely eliminated.

y By thus giving the ties which may be of wood or any suitable material a slight `bevel or ydownward taper and embedding them vclosely in the concrete bed, the two are combined in a single structure, which utilizes to lbest advantage the resilience of the ties and In the accompanying drawings I have illustrated a paved'railway structure embodying the features of my invention inthe preferred form. i Y

In the drawings:

Figure 41 is a section of the railway structure of the invention taken at right angles to the rails and showing `a portion of a tie Y in elevation and the paving and base in section.V i

Ii`igurev2 is a section at right angles to the plane of Figure 1, taken on the line 2-2 of Figure 1. y

Figure 3 is a top line view of the paved railway structure. y Y

Figure 4 is a perspective view of oneofthe ties which is a feature of the invention.

Referring to the drawings by numerals, each of which is used to indicate the same or similar parts in the different figures, the railway structure as shown comprises a concrete i paving'base'l on which the drawings show a pavement 2, though the'base 1 may be any suitable bed of concrete not necessarily serving as a paving base. The structurev alsoincludes railway Vties 3, embedded in the base,

which preferably extends a few inches Vabove the ties as shown and terminates in or near the may, of course, be substituted, though the structure of the invention is regarded as elim- 'natino' all necessit for such a subbase. they side and end surfaces of the ties are ,l b y In orderl to effect an interlocking of the ties with the base so as to' form an integral vrailway structure, 'comprising the base, ties and rails as .already outlined utilizing the resiliency of the ties-and theV compressive strength of the concrete, whereby the load or carload on the rails is resiliently supported on and transmitted to and kdistributed throughout the base or the portion thereof between the adjacent ties, the ties are confico and inwardly inclined toward the'central line or central vertical plane ofeach tie'and preferably as already pointed out, thevends of the. ties at 8 are also downwardly and in-v.

wardly inclined, producing a similar down-v ward taper in the vertical section'of the tie `taken transversely to the length of the railsV and longitudinally of the tie.` The plane of the latter section is indicated by the line 10-10 in Figure 3, the plane of the transverse section. Figure 2, being indicated by the line 2 2 in Figurel.

wheel of a street car or other rolling stock, and paving guards 21 and 22 on each side of the rail to support the edges of the pavement,

. these paving guards in the form ofthe invention shown being held in position by anchor p members 24 embedded in the paving base 1.

Between the guards 21 and 22 `and the rail 4 I have shown a plastic filler 25 and 26 on the opposite sides of the rail to sealthe joint-s and prevent the entrance of water between the rail and the concrete paving base. This is necessary or at least desirable in the localities where freezing occurs to prevent destruction of the concrete due to the expansion of the water in freezing within the struc-ture.

In order to produce the result outlined,l the concrete which is to compose the base lfis carefully tamped between the ties and against the ends if the tapered ends are used and preferably the portion of the base near and between the ties which actually receives Vthe weight therefrom, the same being Yindicated by reference character 11, is madev thicker than the remainder of the paving base at l12. To eect the desired result the soil or other subbase, as already outlined, is preferablyV cut away beneath, between and in the vicinity of the ties 3, forming a longitudinal shoulder 14, on each side of the roadbed spaced outwardly a few inches from the ends of the ties, which 'shoulders form a shallow trench contining the concrete at each outer edge of the thickened portion forming the railway bed 11 and providing for effective tamping of the concrete against the inclined end surfaces 8 of the ties. This result may, however, be effected in any suitable manner and the shape of the base is not essential. In this way the inclined surfaces of concrete 15, bearing on the ends of the ties, and 16 and 17 bearingV against the front and rear downwardly and inwardly inclined longitudinal surfaces 6 and 7 are formed and when the concrete'has hardened these surfaces 15, 16 and 17 of the concreteY form a rigid support for the tie,

i having in this way a wedging action which permits the tie to yield to a slight degree relau ,tively to the concrete. The yielding of the tie in this way and the downward yielding :downward yielding of the ties is only such as results from shrinkage and compressionof the wood due tothe load. This compression takes place both in a vertical direction and vin the direction of the thicknessof the wedge sections. The wedging action` described which is due to thisyielding, whileit is suicient to support the ties, is such as to transmit to the concrete, lforces as the e result of the downward impactV of therail which are maingitudinally and most easily and eficientlyr sisted .by the concrete.. kVihen the ties have thus yielded or been compressed to the wedgev shaped seats in the concrete ,formed bythe mouldingof the concrete aboutthe ties, 'the combined structure may ,be accurately de scribed as continuous andintegral. In fact,

theyieldingof the ties by compression in this way is so slight las to be almost imperceptible, being sufficient only to apply the load placed vupon the ties tothe combined surfaces Y so u ly forces of compression exerted almost lon- The illustration `includes incidentally a" of the concrete and wood. rIhe shrinkage of thevconcrete which is also taken upby the settling of the ties isv apt to be greater.

l have thus described specifically and 1n detailV a continuous integral railway structure comprising resilient ties of downwardly taperingcross section with rails resiliently supported on the ties and a concrete base or b ed closely fitted asby t'amping between'the ties connecting and supporting themV by the wedging action of theinclined surfaces formingthe taperewhich transmitsther load or a nconsiderable portion of it to the concrete base mainly intheform of compression stress 'distributing the weight or load on the rails thus received throughout the concrete by which it is transmitted with substantial uniformity tothe soil o r any surface or sub-base upon which the base may be laid. While the ties and rails are preferably thus supported entirely by the wedging action, the construction is capable Vof considerable I variation within the broader conception of the invention, and it is not essential that .the ties be supported out of contact with or independentlyof the subbase or entirely by the wedging action, and while the description is speciiic and in detail, the specific' terms herein are used descriptively rather than in a limitrings'ense, the scope of the invention being de- Vfined in the claims. c i

yWhat I claim as new and by Letters Patent is: Y v .Y

l. The combination in a paved railway structure of resilient ties having aldownward taper, rails supported on the ties and concrete between the ties and conforming to the taper whereby the concrete is caused to support the desirel to secure Vties, the load on the rails being transmitted kthrough the ties to'the concrete by the wedging action of thetaperedties. Y

" 2. The combination in a railway structure of resilientties having a downward taper in both the longitudinal andV transverse cross Vsections and concrete in which the ties are embedded,-the concrete being larranged inclose contact with the sides and ends of the ties, and rails supported on theties whereby the load on the rails is Vtransmitted from the ties to the concrete bythe wedging action of the taper,`the rails, ties and concrete forming a continuous integral structure. i

'3. The, combination in a railway structure vof resilient ties having a downward taper in vboth the longitudinal and transverse cross sections and a concrete baser in which the ties are embedded, the concrete being placed in close contact with thesides and ends of the ties and rails supported on` the ties whereby the loa'd on the rails is transmitted from the ties to the concrete by the wedging action of the taper, the rails, ties and concrete base forming an integral structure, by which the Ycar impact is transmitted with substantial uniformity to any suitable subgrade.

Y 4. The combination in a lrailwaystructure of resilient ties having substantially plane sidesurfaces convergingl downwardly, rails supported on the-ties and concrete in which the ties are embedded, the concrete having surfaces parallel ,to and in close contact with 24th day of April, 1929.

f WILLIAM S. GrODVVINj Signed'by me at Baltimore, Maryland, this.75

the said converging surfaces whereby the conf Y Vcrete tends to support theties 'and the carload by the wedging action of the ties transmitting the load thereto.

5. The combination in a paved railway structure of resilient'ties having substantially plane side surfaces convergingdownwardly, rails supported on the ties and concrete in which the ties are embedded, the concrete eX- tending from a few inchesy above the ties to a bottomlevelnear the bottom level of the ties Y and having surfaces parallel to and in close contact with the said converging surfaces Vwhereby the concrete tends to support the ties and the carload by the wedging action of the ties transmitting the load thereto.

6. 'Av railway base or bed composed of downwardly tapered resilient ties spaced apart and an oppositely tapered concrete portion between each pair of adjacent ties and engaging each said tie,ithe tapers compensatingtfor each other so lthat the ties and concrete form a combined continuous structure and a non rigid subbase supporting said structure, rails bearing on'the ties only and forcing them down, the contact between the ties and the concrete being closeenough to vsupport the tiesV on the concrete. v

7. A railway base or bed composed ofk i' downwardly tapered resilient ties spaced apart having an oppositely tapered concrete portion between each pair of adjacent ties, 

